Roll Call: HPRA, rbb PR, and MSLGroup

The Hispanic Public Relations Association has named its first national board of directors. Among those on the board are Oralia Michel, president of Omagen, who will serve as president of the board; Melissa Smith, EVP at RLPR who’s an at-large board member; and Lourdes Rodriguez, an account supervisor at VPE Public Relations who will serve as VP of programs. HPRA was founded in 1984 in Los Angeles. [via]

Sandra Fine (left) has been promoted to VP at rbb Public Relations. She joined the firm in 2005 as a senior account executive.

MSLGroup has announced a number of international appointments. Leonardo Sforza has been named MD in Brussels. He was previously head of research and EU affairs at Aon Hewitt. Richard Hayhurst has been named MD of the new healthcare practice in the MSL London office. He was previously the U.K. MD of Schwartz Communications, which was acquired in September 2011. And Adrian Rosenthal has joined MSLGroup in Germany as head of social media and digital. He was previously with Ketchum Pleon.

RF|Binder Partners has named Marc Greene executive MD and chief media strategist, responsible for media relations activity across the firm. Greene was previously the senior director of U.S. corporate media relations for Sanofi-Aventis, serving as the company’s spokesperson in this country.

Omnicom has acquired a majority stake in Portland, a U.K. public affairs agency. Portland is 11 years old and has offices in London, New York, and Nairobi. [via]

Peter Ward has been named global head of marcomms at Newedge, a multi-asset brokerage and clearing firm. He’ll be working with the Business Line and regional teams on advertising, events, digital strategies, and other efforts. He was previously an independent consultant and, before that, a comms head at Greenwich Capital Markets and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

Santa Monica, CA-based digital agency Blitz has named Cathy Saidiner president of the firm. She was previously president of McCann Erickson West. Blitz clients include Dole and Vizio.

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